My Zhenhai Middle School Days我在鎮海中學的日子

Our old daughter Serenity is entering 7th grade this school year, as I said somewhere else, in 6 years she will very likely attend college. Use her word, "I want to a quality college such as Columbia U". I know she wanted to be a wildlife biologist and last I checked she has no intention to be a engineer or a computer scientist (like her proud dad :-) 我們的大女兒 Serenity 本學年要上 7 年級，正如我在其他地方所說的，6 年後她很可能會上大學。用她的話，“我想要一所高質量的大學，比如哥倫比亞大學”。我知道她想成為一名野生動物生物學家，最後我檢查她無意成為一名工程師或計算機科學家（就像她驕傲的父親一樣）(Chinese is done via Google translate)

The middle school seems getting more serious here. Because Serenity has a few extra curriculum activities in addition to her school, some days she will complain about the work: the homework and the burden comes with it. Plus she is in adolescent age now, let's just say in some days (or evenings) she was not happy (mostly with herself, sometimes with us). 中學似乎在這裏變得更加嚴肅。因為 Serenity 在學校之外還有一些額外的課程活動，所以有時她會抱怨工作：家庭作業和負擔隨之而來。再加上她現在正處於青春期，讓我們說在某些日子（或晚上）她不開心（主要是對自己，有時是對我們）。

This reminded me my Zhenhai middle school 鎮海中學 days. I had a rough ramp up period in my middle school due to two reasons, I think. Note in China middle school is really both middle school and high school in the USA. Zhenhai is a selected school (or magnet school, if I can use an analogy here). As a 5th grade kid, I never imagined I would end up at Zhenhai Middle back in 1983. In fact, even after I passed the test, and academically eligible, because I was only 12 years old, and need to attend this boarding school (there is some financial burden to my parents, unfortunately not trivia for them at the time). After some consulting with my uncle (my mom's big brother), my parents decided to send me there. One reason is as the old saying goes, entering Zhanhai Middle means one would have "one leg already get into college". Note going to college is a big thing for us, because at the time, there were really no other good choices other than that. At least not for us (myself, and my two elder brothers). 這讓我想起了我在鎮海中學鎮海中學的日子。我認為，由於兩個原因，我在中學經曆了一段艱難的成長期。請注意，中國的中學實際上是美國的中學和高中。鎮海是一所精選學校（或磁鐵學校，如果我可以在這裏打個比方的話）。作為一個五年級的孩子，我從沒想過我會在1983年最終進入鎮海中學。事實上，即使我通過了考試，並且有學術資格，因為我隻有12歲，需要上這所寄宿學校（我的父母有一些經濟負擔，不幸的是當時對他們來說不是瑣事）。在與我叔叔（我媽媽的大哥）商量後，我的父母決定送我去那裏。原因之一，就是那句老話，進了湛海中學，就意味著“一條腿已經考上了大學”。注意上大學對我們來說是一件大事，因為在當時，除此之外真的沒有其他好的選擇。至少對我們（我自己和我的兩個哥哥）來說不是。

Back to my rough ramp up period. The first reason is easy, I never left my parents or my family for that long before that, I did stay with my paternal grandma for a night during school year, or I stayed at my uncle's home with my maternal grandma for a few weeks. I was fairly close to both grandparents. At Zhenhai Middle though, I came back home usually once a month, mainly due to the transportation cost. My big brother was attending to the same school when I was in grade 6 (he was at high school), but for some reason I don't want to delve into, I was not close to my big brother. That situation changed when my 2nd brother joined when I attending the 7th grade. But in my 1st year I was on my own, in terms of washing my own clothes (think the cold water from faucet in winter). The second reason is there were many other talented kids, and there was intense competition mainly on academics. Related to that, my class got a very well known counselor and he was pretty strict too. He is unconventional in some ways, for example, he was math teacher, but he rarely gives lecture. He gave us a lot of homework instead, basically we learned ourselves through doing those homework. We joked the homework is never ending. Because as soon as we finish some, he would give out new ones :-( I recall some kids really struggled because they are not used to the pace, the work and I am guessing due to lack of instructions. I am not saying the teacher is all bad. Maybe he was not the best teacher for some of the kids. For me I think I learned self-study in his system. Also, once when I was fairly new, I got sick (fever). He took me to hospital and made sure I was treated. So in a way he was a father figure. He was strict too, as once I got fight into another boy, he gave both of us a hard lesson. 回到我粗略的加速期。第一個原因很簡單，在那之前我從來沒有離開過父母或家人那麽久，我確實在學年期間和我的外祖母住了一個晚上，或者我在我的叔叔家和外祖母住了幾個星期。我和祖父母都很親近。不過在鎮海中，我一般是一個月回一次家，主要是交通費。我六年級的時候我哥哥在同一所學校上學（他在讀高中），但出於某種我不想深入研究的原因，我和我哥哥關係並不好。當我上 7 年級時，當我的二哥加入時，這種情況發生了變化。但在我的第一年，我自己洗衣服（想想冬天水龍頭裏的冷水）。第二個原因是有很多其他有才華的孩子，而且主要是在學術上的激烈競爭。與此相關的是，我班有一位非常有名的輔導員，他也很嚴格。他在某些方麵非常規，例如，他是數學老師，但他很少講課。他給了我們很多功課，基本上我們都是通過做功課來學習的。我們開玩笑說作業永無止境。因為一旦我們完成一些，他就會給出新的:-(我記得有些孩子真的很掙紮，因為他們不習慣節奏，工作，我猜是由於缺乏指導。我不是說老師都不好。也許他不是一些孩子最好的老師。對我來說，我認為我在他的係統中學會了自學。另外，當我還很新的時候，我生病了（發燒）。他帶我去醫院，並確保我得到治療。所以在某種程度上他是一個父親形象。他也很嚴厲，因為一旦我和另一個男孩打架，他給我們倆上了一課。

In the early days of the 6th grade, I recall once I came home, again the once a month trip, I believe at that time it's 6 days a week school, so we left school at Saturday afternoon, and back to school on Sunday afternoon. And I brought homework to work on too, again the "never ending homework" from the teacher. I cried because of the burden of the homework. My father asked if I wanted to go back to Zhenhai. Obvious I could not quit. I can think of two benefits of doing the middle school there: 1) I learned self study; 2) I gained confidence among my peers, again note some of the kids are quite smart. I think the latter helped me in high school too. Since I built good foundations in middle school, I did not really worked during high school, and was still able to do decently well. A common slogan the teacher says often is 先苦後甜 or "no pain no gain" in English. 記得六年級初期，有一次回家，又是一個月一次的旅行，我相信當時是一周六天的學校，所以我們周六下午放學，周日下午回學校.我也帶了作業去做，又是老師的“永無止境的作業”。因為作業的負擔，我哭了。父親問我要不要回鎮海。顯然我不能放棄。我可以想到在那裏讀中學的兩個好處：1）我學會了自學； 2）我在同齡人中獲得了信心，再次注意到有些孩子很聰明。我認為後者在高中時也幫助了我。由於我在中學打下了良好的基礎，所以在高中的時候我並沒有真正工作過，而且還能夠做得很好。老師經常說的一個常見口號是英語中的“先苦後甜”或“沒有痛苦就沒有收獲”。

Downside of this approach

Again I think for me personally I benefits from this system for the most part. But this is not for everyone. I recall for my cohorts from 白峰中心小學 (Baifeng elementary school)，2 boys and 2 girls were admitted to Zhenhai Middle, 3 attended (the other girl actually joined in high school because she is really good / smart), my other 2 friends did not got admitted to the high school at Zhenhai. I also recall a fairly smart girl, who is not particularly good looking (I understand this may not be politically correct, but I am just stating something from my memory), at one time was constantly bashed by the counselor teacher: his approach did not work. I vaguely recall we lost a boy from Hepatitis A in one year (I don't think the school has a lot of responsibility on this though). I do recall there is some cronyism as well. For example, each class in the middle school has 5 quotas for the kids directly go to high school (no test score requirement), and I don't think it's a fair / transparency process. Last but not least, some of the city 城關鎮 kids were singled out because they did not do homework, or just lag behind on academics. I was able to dine with some of the old classmates in year 2013 (we graduated from middle school in 1986, high school in 1989), one funny story told by one of the city 城關鎮 kid: once he was walking with his mother in law and kid on the street, and the teacher said them, and made a comment "你這樣的人也會結婚啊？“ (his implied meaning, a fall-behind student such as you don't deserve a love from someone and get married). This is obviously not right. Another time, when we were all new to high school, and the teacher threw out my roommate's luggage out of window due to some discipline issue: I vaguely recall my roommate got overly excited as the next day is winter break. 我再次認為，就我個人而言，我在很大程度上受益於這個係統。但這並不適合所有人。回想起白峰小學中心（白峰小學）的同學，2男2女考入鎮海中學，3人就讀（另外一個女孩真的上高中，因為她真的很好/聰明），我的另外2個朋友沒有考上鎮海中學。我還記得一個還算聰明的女孩子，長得不是特別好看（我理解這可能不是政治正確，但我隻是憑記憶說一點），有一次經常被輔導老師痛罵：他的做法並沒有工作。我隱約記得我們在一年內失去了一個患甲型肝炎的男孩（但我認為學校對此沒有太大責任）。我記得也有一些裙帶關係。例如，中學每個班級有 5 個直接上高中的名額（沒有考試成績要求），我不認為這是一個公平/透明的過程。最後但並非最不重要的一點是，城關鎮的一些孩子因為沒有做功課，或者隻是學業落後而被單獨挑出來。 2013年和一些老同學一起吃飯（1986年中學畢業，1989年高中畢業），城關鎮的一個孩子講了一個有趣的故事：有一次他和媽媽一起在法律和孩子在街上，老師說他們，並且評論“你這樣的人也結婚啊？”結婚）。這顯然是不對的。還有一次，當我們都是初中生的時候，老師因為紀律問題把我室友的行李扔到窗外：我隱約記得我的室友太興奮了那天是寒假。

Other hits and misses (or just random facts) in my middle school:

1) I recall we (boys) played quite a bit co-ed basketballs with the girls in the class, that's until the 2nd or 3rd year, when they girls started their adolescents years (starting period etc.), and they have their separate PE (physical education) class. Some of the girls are very good academically. And I still don't understand why the St. Louis based private school such as MICDs separate boys and girls on STEMs in middle school (that's what I heard). 2) I like running but I was not very good at it. So in the 800 meter race, I would use all the energy in the first 200 or 300 meters, then lag behind. 3) I was able to join the computer club and worked on very simple BASIC programming language (a few lines, go to statement etc), and it seems today's MicroBit and Arduino programming are similar. 4) I could not fall asleep during the ZhongKao （中考） : it's the admission test from middle school to high school. I recall 2 of my dorm mates were very nice, and tried to help me fall asleep. I think one reason is I knew I had to be successful (and the pressure came with it). Three years later, I had similar issues during GaoKao 高考（college admission exam). Note in China, middle school is 3 years, and high school is also 3 years. 5) We worked at a farm couple times, again because of our counselor (the strict teacher). I think most kids hated it. Because we dealt with cow manure. On the other hand, it was a bit funny for me to explain how rice was grown to a city kid. 6) Talking about city kid, note half of the kids live at home, they are from 鎮海城關鎮，the other half live in the dorm. The boys were able to live in the newly built dormitory building in 1983, the girls new dorm was built a few years later. I think there are stories on the old dorm too. We did not have hot water for shower. At one time, when we were in high school, we borrowed teacher's shower room key (it was cold water shower, but still works in summer). 1）我記得我們（男孩）和班上的女孩打了相當多的男女混合籃球，直到第二年或第三年，當他們女孩開始青春期（開始期等）時，他們有自己的獨立PE（體育）課。一些女孩的學習成績非常好。而且我仍然不明白為什麽像MICD這樣的聖路易斯私立學校在中學的STEM上將男孩和女孩分開（這就是我所聽到的）。 2) 我喜歡跑步，但我不太擅長。所以在800米比賽中，我會在前200米或300米用完所有的能量，然後就落後了。 3）我能夠加入計算機俱樂部並從事非常簡單的 BASIC 編程語言（幾行，go to 語句等），看起來今天的 MicroBit 和 Arduino 編程很相似。 4) 中考（中考）睡不著：這是從初中到高中的入學考試。我記得我的兩個舍友都很好，並試圖幫助我入睡。我認為原因之一是我知道我必須成功（壓力隨之而來）。三年後，我在高考高考（高考）時也遇到了類似的問題。注意在中國，初中是3年，高中也是3年。 5）我們在農場工作了幾次，也是因為我們的輔導員（嚴格的老師）。我想大多數孩子都討厭它。因為我們處理的是牛糞。另一方麵，對我來說，向一個城市孩子解釋水稻是如何種植的有點有趣。 6）說到城裏的孩子，注意一半的孩子住在家裏，他們來自鎮海城關鎮，另一半住在宿舍。 1983年，男生得以住進新建的宿舍樓，女生的新宿舍是幾年後建成的。我想舊宿舍也有故事。我們沒有熱水淋浴。有一次，我們上高中的時候，借了老師的淋浴房鑰匙（是冷水淋浴，但夏天還能用）。

Also: I talked about the clubs here.